-- do you shake your milk?

[Kev Williams]

Just curious if anyone else shakes their milk?

Not too long ago the wife heard about this somewhere, so...

Every time I'm in the fridge, I grab the gallon jug of milk, and shake the daylights out of it...

When I do this, the milk will go as much as 12 days past the expiration date before it 'turns'.
When I don't, most times it'll turn within 2 days either way of the expy...

Weird, but I'm convinced it works! :)

[Mel Fulks]

Are you sure ‘fridge is cold enough? Thermostat could be inaccurate . We buy “half and half” in half gallon size and mainly just use it
for coffee and tea. Only once did one go bad, since we use the stuff at a pretty consistent rate we did wonder why one “didn’t make it”.

[Rich Engelhardt]

Whole milk? Buttermilk? 2%? Skim?

What kind?

We buy 2% all the time.

[Ronald Blue]

So you are really just having a milkshake. :):D Seriously though the only milk I shake is chocolate milk because real or imagined it seems sometimes some settles to the bottom. When I was a kid and into the 90's possibly we had milk that needed stirred. Because the cream rises to the top on "home squeezed" milk. Nothing better on cereal though.

[Kev Williams]

we generally buy whole milk, store brands. Not sure about 1% or 2% or skim, but don't see why that would matter.

Fridges (2 of them) are definitely cold enough...

[Maurice Mcmurry]

We had a machine for that but it stirred rather than shook. It held 1000 gallons and was cooled by 10 tons of refrigeration. I advocate for the Go Mad diet and never have a problem with freshness so no need to shake at our house.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Sometimes I shake my milk before opening, especially if there is a "cream ring" around the top. I only buy whole milk. If it should start to sour, I add vinegar and turn it into whole milk buttermilk. Whole milk buttermilk makes better biscuits due to extra butterfat. Local store ( Food Lion) carries three brands of milk, national one, and two different store brands. Milk on lower shelf in cooler is forty cents cheaper than middle shelf. Top shelf is national brand. All three come from the same processing plant, based upon code on jugs. There is a web site "Where Does My Milk Come From," that shows what the codes means. As an example, our milk comes from 37-387, which is a processing plant in High Point NC. Was owned by Harris Teeter stores, but recently sold to Maryland - Delaware Dairyman's Assoc. Same code on store brand of ice cream, which means their competition made their ice cream.

[Jim Koepke]

Most of the time my milk is poured into a tall glass then the glass is set in the freezer while preparing my dinner.

Milk is great with a thin layer of ice.

jtk

[Jim Becker]

I honestly don't because I don't worry too much about it. The milk only gets used for our morning latté and maybe a little for some granola that Professor Dr. SWMBO often has for lunch so a half-gallon lasts about a week which is at least a week shorter than the expiration date on the container. (whole milk, BTW)

But it does sound like a good tip for anyone who uses their milk slowly or keeps a lot of it on hand.

[Zachary Hoyt]

We use a gallon a week or more, so haven't had trouble with it souring. It's an interesting idea, though.

[John Goodin]

I am a shaker if it to be drunk from a glass but not if it is for a recipe. This is from my childhood. My mother bought groceries from the naval commissary across town about every six weeks. She would by about a dozen half gallons of milk and freeze it. Thawed it seemed watery, even though it was homogeneous, unless it was shaken so my dad and I always shook our milk.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

Cooling combined with agitation = Homogenization, that is why folks shake milk. Getting whole milk into the separator quickly was a big deal before quick cooling was an option. Grandpa fed the skimmed milk to the pigs and sold the cream. Mom and Dad sold homogenized whole milk. Homogenization occurred in the bulk tank when the whole milk was quick cooled and agitated simultaneously.

[Rich Engelhardt]

we generally buy whole milk, store brands. Not sure about 1% or 2% or skim, but don't see why that would matter.
It makes a difference in the amount of fat in the milk.
The lower the fat - the quicker the milk will go bad.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

The type of container plays a big role in taste. It is more noticeable with whole milk. My Mom (bless her heart) consistently had the lowest SCC of any Dairy in the Mid-Am Co-Op which includes several states.

[derek labian]

I shake the milk because I like it a bit aerated, it somehow seems fresher to me. My wife hates it though.

[Alan Lightstone]

I freeze all of ours when initially purchased, then thaw for a few days before use. Also only used for lattes. I find it is very rare that the milk goes bad this way. Not sure why it works, but it does.

Fridge temp has been verified by multiple high-end thermometers. It is correct, which is nice. You never know with those refrigerator thermometers.

[Bill Dufour]

Most all milk sold is homogenized.
BilL D

[Bruce Wrenn]

Correction, it's Maryland - Virginia Dairy Assoc.

[Warren Lake]

is this a James Bond thing?

Then this is why we cant always trust the interweb

489964

[Rick Potter]

If you buy the milk at Costco it has a shelf life of six weeks or more. Often when we are finished with it, the carton shows it is still a month from being out of date. It comes from the midwest somewhere, and is not local (CA).

I asked one time, and was told it is ultra homogenized, or ultra pasteurized, can't remember which but the homogenized sounds logical. The milk we buy is 1%, with three half gal cartons to a box for $10.88. More expensive than the cheap stuff at the market, but better tasting than normal 2%.

My folks ran a Lawson dairy store in Ohio, and I remember homogenized milk costing 3c a gallon more than non. Lots of folks then bought non homogenized, took it home and poured off the cream for coffee, then drank the non fat. That was 1956.

[Stan Calow]

There is such a thing as Ultra High Temperature (UHT) milk. It's essentially sterilized, and so doesn't need refrigeration. Pretty common in Europe for many years.

I had never heard of people shaking milk. Maybe it's just a habit turned custom, from the days before homogenization. I have heard that smelling the bottle is not a good way to check freshness, as you can be smelling the dried crusty stuff around the cap, which can go bad while the body of milk is still OK.

" . . . Lots of folks then bought non homogenized, took it home and poured off the cream for coffee, then drank the non fat. That was 1956. . . "

I think I'd be the one who drank the cream, and I'll bet I'm not the only one.

[Rich Engelhardt]

If you buy the milk at Costco it has a shelf life of six weeks or more. Often when we are finished with it, the carton shows it is still a month from being out of date. It comes from the midwest somewhere, and is not local (CA).

I asked one time, and was told it is ultra homogenized, or ultra pasteurized, can't remember which but the homogenized sounds logical. The milk we buy is 1%, with three half gal cartons to a box for $10.88. More expensive than the cheap stuff at the market, but better tasting than normal 2%.

My folks ran a Lawson dairy store in Ohio, and I remember homogenized milk costing 3c a gallon more than non. Lots of folks then bought non homogenized, took it home and poured off the cream for coffee, then drank the non fat. That was 1956.
Lawson's chip dip is the A number 1 best ever - not even close - chip dip in the universe!
Circle K owns the original recipe which goes back 70 years.

[Perry Hilbert Jr]

Most of you have never heard of shaking milk because you have never had or see non-homogenized milk. When I worked at a dairy part time in high school, most of the milk was homogenized, but they still had customers for non-homogenized Guernsey milk. The cream would separate out and form at the top of the milk bottle. Maybe the top inch and a half. It could be mixed again by shaking a few times. My dad always shook the milk container, but rarely ever poured milk for anything but us kids. A holdover from the dairy he knew growing up. When I married my ex. , my ex FIL kept a cow in the barn for milk. Mostly a holstein but for a bit he had a jersey. The cream would always be floating on top the milk in the fridge and even had thicker lumps of butterfat in that. . I loved it, but my ex said it was what she grew up with and hated it. Then when we had kids and bought a lot of milk she would complain that it looked like white colored water. There is a very small dairy nearby, the Brown Cow, that, last I was in, still sells non-homogenized milk, and the cream goes to the top, even in the chocolate milk. (BTW, I once had a very dark brown Jersey cow. I named her calf Chocolate, so the Brown cow really did give Chocolate milk)

[Perry Hilbert Jr]

So you are really just having a milkshake. :):D Seriously though the only milk I shake is chocolate milk because real or imagined it seems sometimes some settles to the bottom. When I was a kid and into the 90's possibly we had milk that needed stirred. Because the cream rises to the top on "home squeezed" milk. Nothing better on cereal though.

I worked part time for a dairy in high school and got hooked on cream. Every once in a while, I will buy a pint of heavy whipping cream to drink. (Which BTW, has fewer carbs per pint than skim milk) (carbs not calories) If you are trying to watch weight and go KETO, cream is better than skim.

[Perry Hilbert Jr]

I was taught that buttermilk, was cream after the butter was removed and had nothing to do with whole milk. But all the stores now sell "cultured" butter milk which to me is as mysterious and unnatural as non-dairy half and half. When i worked for a dairy 60 yrs ago, the buttermilk was just that, cream after the butter had been removed. Sort of a bluish tinge to it too. The stuff today is just partially soured milk. We use plain yogurt instead of buttermilk in recipes.

[Rick Potter]

Are there still Lawson dairy stores in Ohio? Like I said, dad ran one until they fired him because they found out he was planning to move to CA. That was my first job, at 11, I stocked shelves, and cleaned, at 12 I worked the counter, and everything else, except for running the meat slicer. My mom put her foot down about that. At that time, it was a small grocery store. No gas station like nowadays.

Interesting fact. I have dad's old records, and he made twice as much money as store manager in 1954, as I made as a Fireman in 1964. That was a surprise. Always wondered if he got some sort of commission on store profits. It was a busy store and he had mom and me working free..well....not quite, I got 50c per hr.

[Warren Lake]

doesnt skim have sugar in it, sugar is evil.

[Stan Calow]

No added sugar - skim just has the fat removed. All milk has sugar - lactose is sugar.

[Rick Potter]

I just bought some of that Costco 1% milk. It says 'ultra pasteurized' on the carton. Bought 11-22-22, sell by date 1-13-23.

It has also gone up 2$ for three half gals. That's almost 20% this year, must be that 8% inflation rate.

[Brian Deakin]

Fleming took the name for his character from that of the American ornithologist James Bond, a Caribbean bird expert and author of the definitive field guide Birds of the West Indies; Fleming, a keen birdwatcher himself, had a copy of Bond's guide and he later explained to the ornithologist's wife that "It struck me ...


Inspirations for James Bond - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inspirations_for_James_Bond#:~:text=Fleming%20took %20the%20name%20for,wife%20that%20%22It%20struck%2 0me)

[Brian Deakin]

Please see this James Bond link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AS-dCdYZbo&ab_channel=Olympics

Apparently a leader from one middle eastern country thought it was real and the Queen had parachuted into the stadium

[Rob Luter]

For years I always shook the plastic milk jug. I'm not sure why. I guess to make sure the residual cream gets mixed in. We get our milk from a local dairy farm now and it comes in glass bottles that are tougher to hold on to so I do so less vigorously if at all.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

I have been shaking some since this thread and am enjoying the frothiness. Here are web images of how Grand Pa's operation was compared to Mom & Dad's
And the Matriarch, Marie. The whole heard was Jerseys.

490400 490401 490402

[Larry Frank]

I have read this thread with great interest. But I do not shake my milk as more effective to shake the cow.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

I have read this thread with great interest. But I do not shake my milk as more effective to shake the cow.

The Calves certainly have that down. The head-butts to the the udder can be quite violent.

[Mel Fulks]

The Calves certainly have that down. The head-butts to the the udder can be quite violent.

Well written ,Maurice. You avoided the awkward, “head-butts to udder can be utterly violent “.

[Bill Dufour]

My father's side of the family is from Guernsey and their cows seldom get mentioned. They too have sweaters, just like team Jersy's fisherman. Different patterns of course.
One thing that bugs me is people wetting their tooth brushes before applying tooth paste. Tooth paste started to replace tooth powder around 1880.
Bill D

[Maurice Mcmurry]

Guernsey and Jersey are on my short list of places to visit. I recently learned about the regional knitting patterns for Fishermans sweaters. It is just too darn sad... The locals know where to return the washed up bodies by the style of the knitting.

[Rick Potter]

Never heard of cow shaking. Cow tipping, now, is another story.

[Alan Lightstone]

Fleming took the name for his character from that of the American ornithologist James Bond, a Caribbean bird expert and author of the definitive field guide Birds of the West Indies; Fleming, a keen birdwatcher himself, had a copy of Bond's guide and he later explained to the ornithologist's wife that "It struck me ...

Inspirations for James Bond - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inspirations_for_James_Bond#:~:text=Fleming%20took %20the%20name%20for,wife%20that%20%22It%20struck%2 0me)



I found that out when on an Emirates flight and they had a documentary on James Bond. Took a picture of the cover of the book from that screen. It's a trivia question that no one could ever answer (except all on SMC now).
490566490567

[Mike Soaper]

Never heard of cow shaking. Cow tipping, now, is another story.

If I could get a milk shake from a cow i'd tip 20%

[Maurice Mcmurry]

The neighbors had barn cats that wound line up and wait to get squirted in the face and mouth with a stream of milk straight from the teat.

[Mel Fulks]

The neighbors had barn cats that wound line up and wait to get squirted in the face and mouth with a stream of milk straight from the teat.

yes, they find it udderly delicious and milk it for all it’s worth. But some warn it can fly “ past ‘yer eyes”.

[Christopher Herzog]

Family had an old jersey cow, abigail I believe. After having her milk for years which you always shook it is just a habit now.